Finding the subscriber growth report in Klaviyo
To pull up the report, head to the left navigation menu in Klaviyo and click Profiles. From that main profiles overview, select View Subscriber Growth in the top right area. This opens a dashboard that maps out how your overall audience size is trending over time.
The report tracks both list growth and list attrition across your account. You will see net changes charted alongside bar graphs that split additions against losses for both email and SMS.
Reading additions versus removals
I use this report primarily as a quick snapshot of account momentum. In a recent account review, for instance, we saw a 1.4% increase in email list size alongside a 2.6% decrease in SMS subscribers over a 30-day window.
When you see net growth, it pays to check what actually drove it. A jump in total profiles can look healthy on the surface, but if a large portion came from a bulk manual import rather than active on-site capture, your sign-up forms might actually be underperforming. If removals outpace genuine organic opt-ins, you have a retention leak to fix.
Breaking down exclusion sources and opt-in channels
Below the top-line charts, Klaviyo breaks down exactly where people join and why they leave. On the opt-in side, you will see attributions for embedded forms, product page popups, and custom API connections.
The exclusion source breakdown is where the real diagnostic value sits. Klaviyo categorises lost profiles into several buckets:
- Email link unsubscribes: A recipient clicked the unsubscribe link inside the body or footer of your email template.
- One-click unsubscribes: A recipient used the native unsubscribe button placed in the inbox header by mailbox providers.
- Spam complaints: A contact marked your message as junk. In one test period, we saw spam complaints rise roughly 144%, which is an immediate red flag for deliverability and audience targeting.
- Hard bounces and manual suppressions: Addresses that failed permanently or were suppressed directly in the backend.
Analysing these buckets tells you what to build next. If most people leave via standard template links, improving your preference pages gives them an option to reduce frequency instead of opting out entirely.
Why SMS numbers drop after broadcast campaigns
SMS subscriber charts look markedly different from email curves. Email churn is usually a steady, low-level background trickle, whereas SMS churn happens in sudden, sharp drops.
If you have not sent a text campaign in several months and then drop a fresh broadcast, expect an immediate spike in exclusions. People forget they signed up, or their appetite for text alerts has changed. That is normal behaviour. It is not cheap to send SMS, so clearing out unengaged recipients early keeps your monthly spend efficient.
The limits of the subscriber growth report
Here is the thing about this report: it shows you what happened, not how well your assets performed. It is a surface-level monitor, not a deep strategic dashboard.
List growth is largely a reflection of paid traffic quality combined with form conversion rates. The subscriber growth screen tells you that 500 people came through a popup, but it does not tell you whether that form converted at 2% or 8%. It is not an essential daily tool. For deeper answers, you are better off reviewing dedicated form analytics and monthly list health metrics.
Final Thoughts
Klaviyo's subscriber growth report is great for a rapid five-minute pulse check. It highlights whether your total audience is expanding or shrinking and flags spikes in spam complaints before they harm your domain reputation. Use it to catch macro trends, then dig into your specific forms and segments to fix the underlying issues.
Audit your Klaviyo account health
If your subscriber numbers are dropping or your spam complaints have started to creep up, we can help you find and fix the leaks. Book a comprehensive account audit with our team to review your deliverability, opt-in forms, and list retention strategy.
